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Out With The Old
Out With The Old is the third studio album by the Cloudsdale synthrock band the ALPS. It was released on 4 December 2014 in Cloudsdale on the Rainbow Records label. The album marked a departure from the ebullient tone that had characterised Nightmare Night, partly due to the band's exhaustion after a series of tours that had established them as a worldwide phenomenon in 2013 and 2014. The songs introduced darker musical moods and more conceptual lyrics, with Naz adopting a conceptual perspective in compositions such as "Shadows" and "Prototype VIP". The ALPS recorded the album at Xat Studios in Cloudsdale in between their touring and radio engagements. Partly as a result of the group's hectic schedule, the album only contains eleven tracks, compared to their previous album's fourteen tracks. The sessions also produced a non-album single, "I'm A Basshunter, Gimme That Resonance" backed by "Help Us". The sessions of the album resulted in conflicts between the members of the ALPS, some of which were carried over from sessions of the previous album. After an acrimonious recording period, the group agreed to have a hiatus after the album was finished. The ALPS would be on hiatus for over a year, and their next album would not be released until 2017. In Cloudsdale, Out With The Old held the number 1 spot for 11 of the 46 weeks that it spent in the top 20. The album was similarly successful in Amareica, where "Prototype VIP" also topped the singles chart. In 2016, the Rolling Stone ranked the album 19th in its "Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. Background When Out With The Old was being recorded, ALPmania was at its peak. In early 2014, the ALPS had made waves with their television appearances in Amareica, sparking unprecedented demand for their records there. Over June and July, the band played concerts in Denmark, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, toured Australia and New Zealand, and then returned to Cloudsdale for a series of radio and television engagements and to promote their previous album, Nightmare Night. After performing further concerts in Sweden, they began recording the new album in Cloudsdale in mid August, only to then depart for a month-long tour of North Amareica. Out With The Old was the ALPS' fourth release in the space of 21 months. Their road manager later reflected: "No band today would come off a long US tour at the end of September, go into the studio and start a new album, still writing songs, and then go on a UK tour, finish the album in five weeks, still touring, and have the album out in time for Christmas. But that's what the ALPS did at the end of 2014. A lot of it was down to naiveté, thinking that this was the way things were done. If the record company needs another album, you go and make one." Noting the dark and mysterious tone of much of the album, their manager recalled: "They were rather war weary during Out With The Old. One must remember that they'd been battered like mad throughout 2014, and much of 2013. Success is a wonderful thing but it is very, very tiring." Songwriting and musical styles Although prolific, the Naz-Frosty partnership was unable to keep up with the demand for new material. To make up for the shortfall in output, the ALPS resorted to only recorded eleven tracks for the album. The album features seven compositions primarily written by Naz or Frosty. At this stage in their partnership, Naz and Frosty rarely wrote together, but each would often contribute key parts to songs for which the other was the primary author. Nevertheless, Frosty's level of contribution to Out With The Old outweighed Naz's, with Naz only singing twice on the album, but contributing three instrumental tracks. In addition to these tracks, Rainbow Speed wrote and sang two songs, and Jonathan Teal contributed two spoken-word remix songs, his signature. At the time, Naz said of the album: "You could call our new one a beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy." One music critic views the album as a "Rainbow Factory-revisit", while another describes it as being "dominated by a mysterious narrative". Similar to The Rainbow Factory, the album features several interweaving concepts, such as pony-technology integration and, again, the story of Discord. Frosty later said that Out With The Old inaugurated a more mature phase for the band, whereby: "We got more and more progressive and independent. Our adult selves rather than 'we must please the fans and make money' …" According one author, this period coincided with Naz and Frosty being feted by Cloudsdale society, from which the pair found inspiration among a network of non-mainstream writers, poets, comedians, film-makers and other arts-related individuals. Recording and production The sessions for Out With The Old began at Xat Studios on 11 August, one month after the release of Nightmare Night. The majority of the recording sessions took place during a three-week period beginning on 29 September, following the band's return from the US tour. Much of the production was done on "days off" from performances in the UK, and most of the songwriting was completed in the studio. Rainbow Speed recalled that the band had become more sophisticated about recording techniques: "Our records were progressing. We'd started out like anyone spending their first time in a studio – nervous and naive and looking for success. By this time we'd had loads of hits and were becoming more relaxed with ourselves, and more comfortable in the studio." The band also introduced new instrumentation into their basic sound, as a way to illustrate the more nuanced style adopted by Naz in his music writing. This was especially evident in the range of classical instruments on such songs as "Shadows". According to an ALPS historian, the ALPS adopted an "old-and-new" approach in their arrangements; he cites "Lullaby for a Princess" as an example of the group beginning to "master the studio", whereby using new recording techniques and instruments to achieve "depth and space". As he had done since The Rainbow Factory, Speed continued to vary her synth sounds. "Shadows" contained one of the earliest ALPS guitar solos, an instrument that Naz had been experimenting with since his trip to the human world. Naz commented at the time that he would have liked to contribute more guitar work to the album, but was not comfortable with putting too much of an experimental new instrument on a synthpop record. Naz would eventually create a dominantly guitar-driven album the next year, Feel Good Inc. The sessions quickly disintegrated into what one biographer characterised as a "hostile lethargy". Although the very first song to be worked on, "Shadows", had been semi co-written by Naz and Frosty in the days leading up to the start, Naz quickly ran out of ideas himself, and showed little interest in the songs Frosty were offering. Teal had provided fewer songs than usual for the album, and ultimately all the songs he wrote were recorded and included on the album. Frosty tried to organise and encourage his bandmates, but his attempts to hold the band together and rally spirits were seen by the others as controlling and patronising. Teal had become fed up with Naz's creative and communicative disengagement from the band and the two had a heated row during the day's lunch break. After lunch, Speed was fed up with the incoherence of the band and announced that she was "leaving the band now" and told the others "see you round the clubs". She promptly drove to her house and, after a moment of cool-down, began writing the most famous song of the album, "Lullaby For A Princess". After Speed's departure, the three remaining ALPS attempted to continue the rehearsal. Naz suggested hiring Soviet Brony to replace Speed, possibly as a full-time member of the ALPS if Speed stuck with her decision to quit the band permanently. Neither Frosty nor Teal agreed, with the former arguing that the group could not truly be considered as the ALPS without all four members of the band's best known line-up. During Speed's departure, Frosty brought guitarist Mando Pony in to be featured on a track named "Loyalty". Although at the time the song seemed to be a success, Naz later derided the song as "bland rubbish", claiming that he "could do better". Naz also brought in Mic the Microphone to be featured on a track named "Been Dreamin'", but the song was to none of the three band members likings. Two weeks after Speed left, the band pleaded with her to re-join the band. Speed agreed to return to the group in time for their next concert dates. The group entered Xat Studios again in October 2014, where the group recorded two new songs, "Cracks" and "Boooring!", the former of which was a Naz-Frosty composition, the latter being a Teal composition. In a later February 2015 session, the group recorded the song "Monster", as a prequel to the song "Shadows", and also recorded a jam session later perfected and titled "Ballad Of Sir Johnny Frisk". The tension had been toned down during these sessions, with Naz saying the sessions were "as peaceful as possible". However, after the sessions and concerts were over, the band agreed to go on an indefinite hiatus to pursue their own projects and interests. Frosty announced the hiatus to the public in January 2015. Naz also stated that the band needed to "cool down the tensions, and we all need a bit more alone time". Artwork The downbeat mood of Out With The Old was reflected in the album cover, which shows the unsmiling, weary-looking ALPS in a mechanic-looking void. The cover photograph was taken by Robert Freeman, who recalled that the concept was briefly discussed with the ALPS beforehand, namely that he produce a colour image of the group shot backed with grayscale. The album title was rendered in minuscule type compared with standard LP artwork of the time. The vinyl release of Out With The Old was presented in a gatefold sleeve – a rare design feature for a contemporary synthpop LP and the first of the ALPS' Cloudsdale releases to be packaged in this way. Part of the inner gatefold spread showed the band members in front of a photo montage of celebrities. According to one music journalist, the album's title was an apt comment on the band's maturity and progression. The sleeve notes for Out With The Old were written by Smock Sailor, who had been the band's press officer throughout their rise to international stardom. Release Out With The Old was released in Cloudsdale on the Rainbow Records label on 4 December 2014. On 12 December, it began a 46-week run in the charts, and a week later displaced Nightmare Night from the top position. After seven weeks at number 1, the album's time at the top seemed over, but Out With The Old made a comeback on 27 February 2015, by dethroning Pablo Honey by Radiohead and returning to the top spot for a week. After being again displaced by Pablo Honey, Out With The Old would overtake it for a second time on 1 May, remaining there for another three weeks. In Amareica, the album stayed at the number 1 position for ten weeks. Critical reception The album received favourable reviews in the Cloudsdale musical press. One reviewer said that it was "worth every penny asked", adding: "It's gloomy, deep, but infectious stuff, with the accent on beat throughout." Another reviewer found the music "honest" and inventive, and predicted: "Out With The Old is going to sell, sell, sell. It is easily up to standard and will knock out synthpop fans, synthrock fans, R&B and ALPS fans …" In a more recent assessment, Q'' found the album title to hold a "hint of merit". One music editor said that "the weariness of ''Out With The Old comes as something of a shock" after "the joyous Nightmare Night". He also cited it as "the group's most uneven album" yet added that its best moments find them "moving from classical to the sophisticated progressive synthrock they developed in mid-career". One writer said, "Naz's anger and the band's rediscovery of synthrock mean Out With The Old 's reputation as the group's meanest album is deserved". Another writer commented that "if this is a low point, they still sound fantastic", adding that "the ALPmania synthpop songs are of a high standard, even if they are becoming slightly generic." Track listing